The parents of Reeva Steenkamp have reacted with shock and disbelief after a judge acquitted star athlete Oscar Pistorius of her murder, convicting him of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
“We were shocked. Shocked. Disappointed,” June Steenkamp told Britain’s ITV News on Friday.
“You know your heart drops because you just want the truth,” she said, referring to the death of her daughter.
Photo: EPA
Earlier on Friday, South African Judge Thokozile Masipa acquitted Pistorius of murder, but found he acted “negligently” in killing the blonde law graduate and fashion model by shooting her through a bathroom door.
“Blade Runner” Pistorius walked free on bail ahead of what could still be a stiff prison sentence. He had argued that he shot Steenkamp in the dead of the night after he mistook her for an intruder. The 27-year-old athlete — whose journey from disabled infant to Olympic sprinter inspired the world — is to hear his punishment when sentencing begins on Oct. 13.
The father of the slain woman said he found it difficult to believe Pistorius’ version of the events.
“There is still something missing,” Barry Steenkamp told ITV News. “I think there was more to the whole story, you know, coming up to the actual shooting, the killing.”
The court had heard that in the early hours of Valentine’s Day last year Pistorius fired four hollow-point pistol rounds into a locked toilet door, hitting Reeva Steenkamp and causing her head to “explode” and “amputating” her arm.
Masipa, dismissing swathes of prosecution evidence as inconclusive or irrelevant, ruled that on the charge of murder “the accused is found not guilty and is discharged. Instead he is found guilty of culpable homicide.”
Pistorius stared straight ahead as the conviction was read, showing little emotion. From the courtroom gallery there were sniffles and shallow breaths as friends and family of 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp wept.
Barry Steenkamp looked at Pistorius and ran his hand over his head, while June Steenkamp pursed her lips and shook her head.
“I just don’t feel that this is the right [verdict],” she said in a separate interview with the US’ NBC News after the final judgement was handed down in Pretoria.
The mother said her daughter had died a “horrible, painful, terrible death.”
“And I can’t believe that they believe that it was an accident,” she said.
Pistorius was escorted by more than a dozen policemen wearing bulletproof vests out of the courtroom and into a heaving crowd outside.
Culpable homicide carries no mandatory sentence under South African law. Masipa — who has a reputation for handing out stiff sentences — could decide to fine Pistorius or put him behind bars for more than a decade.
“It all comes down to how she feels how bad the mistake was,” Johannesburg lawyer David Dadic said. “It’s a very serious negligence crime.”
Speaking after the verdict, Pistorius’s uncle Arnold said the damage done to the athlete’s career and life as a result of the trial had been “tragic.”
“We always knew the facts,” the family spokesman said. “And we never had any doubt in Oscar’s version of this tragic incident.”
“On behalf of the family, we would really like to show how deeply grateful we are to Judge Masipa who has found Oscar not guilty of murder,” Arnold Pistorius said.
Lawyers and crime-weary South Africans voiced surprise and even anger that Oscar Pistorius was found not guilty of murder.
The South African National Prosecuting Authority said it was “disappointed” with the verdict, but had not yet decided on whether to appeal.
“We respect the court’s decision to convict the accused on culpable homicide, which is in fact a serious crime,” spokesperson Nathi Mncube said.
Outside the court, Trevor, a 52-year-old pastor from Pretoria, said the verdict showed that justice favors the rich in the country of staggering inequality.
“If he didn’t have money, he would be in jail,” he said. “Real men don’t do that.”
John Magoma, a 34-year-old standing outside the North Gauteng High Court said: “The judgement is wrong, now the man is off the hook.”
Masipa also found Pistorius guilty on one of three other gun charges that were leveled against him — that of negligently handling a gun that went off in a busy Johannesburg restaurant.
He was cleared on charges of illegally possessing ammunition and firing a gun through a car sunroof.
Born without fibulas — calf bones — Pistorius had his legs amputated below the knee at 11 months of age and was fitted with prosthetics, which allow him to run.
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